Period
David Ireland (1930 - 2009)
2000
Acrylic and Wax on paper
33 cm high x 33 cm wide (overall inc. frame)
Provenance:
Private collection of Karsten Schubert (1961 - 2019)
£4, 750


Greatly influenced by Arte Povera and the Fluxus artists, David Ireland was an influential American, West Coast, conceptual and installation artist, linked to the development of the Bay Area conceptualist school of the 1970’s. He has been described as “an unconventional artist working on the edge, always questioning what it means to create the images and objects we make”. David Ireland’s work eludes categorisation, but exists somewhere between architecture, painting, sculpture and drawing. His practice is one that constantly builds and redefines the vocabulary of its making. His architectural transformations, installations, objects and drawings that consistently challenge viewers' everyday distinctions between art and non-art. A self-described 'post-discipline' artist guided by Zen philosophy and postmodern aesthetics, Ireland moves fluidly from making small drawings to creating sculptures as large as houses. Ireland's recent two and three-dimensional pieces reflect his wide-ranging interests, from exploration of the phenomenon of chance to his interest in process and history.
David Ireland’s house at 500 Capp Street, in San Francisco, was purchased by art collector Carlie Wilmans in 2008. Wilmans established the 500 Capp Street Foundation the same year to preserve and study his work. The house was restored in 2016 and turned into an exhibition venue named ‘The David Ireland House’, organised by the San Francisco Art Institute.
To accompany Ireland's first solo exhibition in London at Karsten Schubert in June - July 2008, ‘Ridinghouse’ published David Ireland: Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings, which featured a selection of the artist’s work from over four decades.
Ireland said, “Ideally my work has a visual presence that makes it seem like part of a usual, everyday situation…I like the feeling that nothing's been designed, that you can't tell where the art stops and starts”.
Related literature:
David Ireland, Kenneth Baker, Karsten Schubert, ‘David Ireland: Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings’, Ridinghouse, London, 2008

David Ireland making wall work for the exhibition 18 Bay Area Artists, Los Angeles institute of Contemporary Art, 1976; image courtesy of The 500 Capp Street Foundation.

David Ireland making wall work for the exhibition 18 Bay Area Artists, Los Angeles institute of Contemporary Art, 1976; image courtesy of The 500 Capp Street Foundation.